Canadian Party Stances on Immigration

With the Canadian Federal elections just next month, knowing each party’s views on immigration has never been more important. Whether you are a citizen or someone looking to enter Canada within the next few years, being informed on the parties’ immigration platforms can help you make the decision that suits you best, or help you inform others. Here are a couple points from each party’s platform you may want to know.

With the Canadian Federal elections just next month, knowing each party’s views on immigration has never been more important. Whether you are a citizen or someone looking to enter Canada within the next few years, being informed on the parties’ immigration platforms can help you make the decision that suits you best, or help you inform others. Here are a couple points from each party’s platform you may want to know.

Conservatives:

The Conservative party has proposed a number of measures on Canadian immigration. For settlement support, the Conservatives hope to address the need for adequate and equitable resources for the instruction of language to immigrants and immigrant families. With immigrants reaching functional capability in one of the country’s two languages, the Conservatives hope it will help with societal and workplace integration. Additionally, they want to streamline the funding processes for settlement services in order to build on stability and allow for long-term planning by service providers.

With regards to entry applications, one of the Conservative goals is to ensure that Citizenship and Immigration Canada is properly staffed and resourced in order to improve application processing time and ensure fair procedure. Furthermore, they hope to reorganize the application process so applicants can have ready access to their application information and easily check their application status. The Conservatives have also expressed a desire to reduce the need for Temporary Residence Permits (TRPs) issued by the Minister, hoping to do so by making the application process more fair and efficient.

NDP:

The NDP has taken a firm stance on the rights of immigrants in Canada and on the temporary foreign worker system. Primarily, the NDP has expressed that family reunification should be the main priority the Canadian Immigration Policy. The party wants to simplify the issuing of visitor’s visas for people coming to visit relatives, drop immigrant application and landing fees, and allow Canadians a one-time opportunity to sponsor a relative who is not a member of the family class to come to Canada. In addition, the NDP wants to create a fast-track family class sponsorship for applicants from areas of disaster.

Concerning temporary foreign workers, the NDP has expressed a strong desire to end the exploitation of them by their employers. Though the NDP has also proposed to prioritize nation building and permanent immigration, they want to allow for temporary foreign workers to be protected and safe in their work environments. The NDP want to allow temporary foreign workers to bring their immediate family with them into Canada, displaying the family reunification focus of their immigration platform.

Liberals:

The proposed Liberal measures fall mostly under repealing bill C-24 and opening Canada up to more refugees, especially those from the Syrian crisis. This being said however, they do hold strong opinions on the status of temporary foreign workers and share similar viewpoints with the NDP on family reunification and funding towards settlement support.

In order to prevent temporary foreign worker exploitation the Liberal party wants to impose a mandatory complaint tracking system, mandatory disclosure of investigations into abuses of the program, mandatory disclosure of federal employer compliance reviews, monthly disclosure of the number of temporary foreign workers, and a compulsory and regular workplace audit.

It’s important to be informed before you vote, or advise anyone to vote in the upcoming federal election. If you’re planning to immigrate to Canada anytime soon check out our Free Online Assessment form!

FWCanada is a Montreal-based immigration law firm that provides professional legal services on Canadian immigration. For more tips and updates on Canadian immigration follow FWCanada on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.